Step Twenty Five: Inspectah Deck: The Movement.

Artist:  Inspectah Deck
Album:  The Movement
Release Date:  June 10, 2003
Producers:  Phantom of the Beats, Ayatollah, Arabian Knight

Review:  The cover for Inspectah Deck's sophomore release The Movement perfectly depicts what the album is: no frills, no bullshit, just straight New York hip-hop.  From the upbeat opener "City High" to the despondent "Cradle to the Grave," Deck offers an hour of airtight rap with no skits, no protracted intro (just a 49-second clip declaring the death of commercial hip-hop), no out-of-place guest spots (just a verse each by Killa Sin, Kool G Rap and Streetlife) and most importantly, no weak tracks.

Where to begin?  The horn-and-vocals funk beat for "City High" sets the stage lovely for Deck to hit the ground running - "We dance with the wolves, wrestle with the pitbulls / For fistfuls of dollars and cents we empty pistols."  "That Shit" is a fun-loving track of self-promotional lyrics on top of palm-muted guitar and swaggering brass; "Get Right" offers some solid call-and-response lyrics and descending keyboards.  The title track follows, a wake-up call that references comics ("So far from the norm my code name's Doc Strange" and "Make 'em wig out, Spider-Man still on the web") and hip-hop culture itself ("My groups cross seas, they call us junglin' thugs / And it's sure to move ya feet like a gun in the club"), which makes sense since it utilizes basic skratching and old-school hi-hats on the drum machine.

"Shorty Right There" is another fun track, with INS and Streetlife mind-boggled at how hot some ladies look.  For example, at the end they go back and forth admiring women:  "Yo look at shorty right there with the six-pack / Lookin' like a fruit snack with the shoe strapped to her kneecaps."  "Nah, shorty right there, the amazon / Six foot three with the glasses on, built for a marathon."

On the second half, "Framed" stands out with a reggae-sung hook between verses by Deck, Kool G Rap and Killa Sin about the police framing them for crimes.  "Vendetta" offers engaging music and an infectious hook as Deck rhymes "You hear the rockets red glare?  The bombs burstin' in air?  / Gave proof through the night that I stood through the fight / Yeah the rebel's still here, what?"  "The Stereotype" is an upbeat, uptempo funk piece with a sung hook promoting what sounds like a blaxploitation hero called The Stereotype, and "Big City" makes the journey go out with a bang before settling into the somber "Cradle to the Grave."

The biggest problem with The Movement is that it's so consistent and cohesive from beginning to end - without ever getting repetitive, boring or monotonous - that it's difficult to talk about.  And that's a Hell of a problem to have.  Every single track has live rhymes and great music; almost every song has funk-inspired horns blaring.  Up to this point (June 2003) it could very well be the best solo album released by a Wu-general since Liquid Swords.  For its entire hour runtime, it never missteps or falters, never loses focus - it sounds like Deck on a mission.  When I saw him live this past spring, I was almost as encouraged to get The Movement signed by him as I was to see him perform at all, and he didn't disappoint on either front.

If you buy one Deck album, buy this one.  It's in my top five post-Forever solo releases.  It's actually so good that I've played tracks from it for no fewer than a half-dozen friends who don't like rap and they unanimously told me they loved it.  The Movement is the reason I started the Map of Shaolin - to help promote some of the most underrated Wu releases while looking back at the band's history and catalog, which also meant I got to blast this CD out of my car for a week straight.

Legacy:  Inspectah Deck made lightning strike twice, following his smash debut Uncontrolled Substance.  He would later release The Resident Patient, Manifesto and Czarface, and though some fans find Manifesto to be a bit lacking, overall Deck proves himself time and again to be one of the most reliably top-notch solo artists in Wu-Tang.  The Movement is a straightforward but flawless rap album about New York, the streets, the hip-hop movement and more in a package that's so listenable it's hard to turn off.

Recommended Tracks:  Every single song on this album is utterly brilliant.  YouTube the entire tracklist and tell me I'm wrong:  City High / That Shit / Get Right / The Movement / Who Got It / It's Like That / Shorty Right There / You Wanna Be / Framed / Bumpin' and Grindin' / Vendetta / The Stereotype / That Nigga / Big City / Cradle to the Grave.  I highly recommend every single track.

Step Twenty Four: The World According to RZA.

Artist:  Various (RZA et al)
Album:  The World According to RZA
Release Date:  April 28, 2003
Producer:  RZA ("Ich Weiss" co-prod. by Jose Reynoso and "I've Never Seen" co-prod. by Xavier Naidoo and Michael Herberger)

Review:  For this Europe-exclusive release, RZA lends his name and production skills to over a dozen European emcees from different countries.  In theory, it's a great idea: take one of hip-hop's best producers and send him across the Atlantic to get verses from some of Europe's hottest rappers.  In practice, it's almost as great an idea, with a couple caveats.

The first thing to sort out is what we really get from this compilation.  With a title like The World According to RZA, one may expect team-ups of various rappers spanning the globe from Brazil to Russia, from China to Istanbul; beats akin to RZA's Ghost Dog score; guest spots from GZA and Inspectah Deck and Method Man; maybe one RZA verse per track.  What we get instead is 70 minutes of Bobby Digital-style beats from about 15 rappers exclusively from six countries in Western Europe, two RZA verses and guest spots from U-God and Ghostface Killah.  And that's not to say it's a bad record - it's actually really enjoyable and a very different part of RZA's plan for world domination than we usually hear.  It's just the title that throws us off, but then again I guess Western Europe Produced by Bobby Digital doesn't have the ring to it that The World According to RZA does.

Having said that, once the listener adjusts to the final product, it's actually a really good album. The artists come from...

Sweden (Feven, Petter)
Norway (Diaz)
France (Saian Supa Crew, Bams, Passi, Iam)
Germany (Curse, Nap, Xavier Naidoo, Afrob, Sekou, Fuat, Bektas, Germ)
England (Bronz n Blak, Blade, Skinnyman, Mr. Tibbs)
Italy (Frankie HI-NRG)

Enough of the lyrics are in Swedish, French, German and Italian that it's hard for me (a native English speaker) to pick up on too many favorite lines or rhymes, but some of the emcees sound especially at home over RZA's electronic-based beats throughout the record.  Feven, a Swedish female rapper, dominates on her track "Mesmerize" with lines like "See ya eyes bleedin' and envy Allah in Sweden / Britain Bahamans beamin' hatin' on my achievements, schemin'."  Swedish-speaking Petter has a bumping track that follows Feven, and the two team up with Diaz (who features solo on a later track) and RZA on "On tha Ground," over a very Wu-Tang-sounding beat with strings and vinyl pops.  It's one of the best early cases for the whole project.  Here, RZA has two brief verses between the rest of this Scandinavian crew.  RZA returns to do the hook on the following track, Diaz's "The North Seas."

Ghostface has a verse on Saian Supa Crew's "Saian," and U-God follows in an uncredited performance on Bams's "Please, Tends L'oreille," both of which would sound at home on The W or Iron Flag with their very uptempo "Gravel Pit"-esque music.  Curse's "Ich Weiss (On My Mind)" is another highlight musically and lyrically, blending the newer Wu sound with rapid-fire rhymes.  "Black Star Line-Up" samples Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake to provide the backdrop for some phat German- and English-language rap by Afrob and Sekou; and the last high point on the album comes in the form of the back-to-back songs from the English rappers Blade, Skinnyman and Mr. Tibbs on "Boing Boing" and Bronz n Blak on "Make Money, Money."

Without seeming to have a central place in any Wu general's career (lying just on the fringe of RZA's career six months before his next album, Birth of a Prince), The World According to RZA knows what it is - a great-sounding tour of European emcees corralled by RZA - and it does exactly what it sets out to do.  It's an entertaining and refreshing break from the usual New York-dominated Wu-Tang catalog that's perfect for frequent casual listening at home or while driving.  There's not as much to say about it as most steps taken on the Map of Shaolin, since 95% of the verses are from rappers not even remotely connected to the Wu besides their appearance on this album, but that's not a complaint.  These are top-notch hip-hoppers piquing in their own careers who earned spots on a RZA-produced compilation, and a series of beats somewhere between Digital Bullet and Ghost Dog to keep us nodding our heads along.  This is a confident and worldly 73-minute collection to add to your library that - while night and day from usual Wu outings - never wears out its welcome.  It's really a great album to hear, even if it doesn't immediately inspire a more lengthy discussion.

Legacy:  The World According to RZA foreshadowed the Wu-Tang-related compilation projects to follow over the next decade - like Dreddy Krueger's Think Differently: Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture, RZA's Afro Samurai soundtracks and the Wu-affiliate albums Chamber Music and Legendary Weapons.  Each have had their individual focuses (from Think Differently's hand-picked indie hip-hop acts and Legendary Weapons' and Chamber Music's use of live instruments by The Revelations) and this sets the stage: Europe's exploding rap industry.  Its striking talent and Wu-Tang seal of approval make it and the aforementioned comps resemble mixtapes made for the world by RZA, which is never a bad thing to hear while waiting between albums.

Recommended Tracks:  On tha Ground (Ft. Scandinavian All-Stars), Black Star Line-Up (Afrob & Sekou), Ich Weiss (Curse).

Next Week:  Inspectah Deck's The Movement, one of the main reasons I started The Map.  Give it a few listens before I review it next week, kids; it's an instant classic and every song on it is dope.

Step Twenty Three: GZA: Legend of the Liquid Sword.

Artist:  GZA
Title:  Legend of the Liquid Sword
Release Date:  December 10, 2002
Producers:  Arabian "Q-Base" Knight, et al.

Review:  Wow.  In terms of record labels, the Wu could not catch a break in 2002.  Loud Records, who put out every Wu-Tang album to date, was dissolving, and MCA Records made Legend of the Liquid Sword their next-to-last release before Geffen bought them out.

Legend of the Liquid Sword turns its namesake on its head immediately, offering a child's monologue about his father's journey - but instead of sampled dialogue from the classic film Shogun Assassin, a boy reads a script written by GZA about hip-hop.  The first proper song is "Auto Bio," detailing GZA's early days.  Its lively strings and staccato piano loop provide an ample background for The Genius's lyrics, which - surprising no one - are top-notch as always.  I've heard plenty of people declare that GZA is the best lyricist in the Wu, and I wouldn't argue against it.  Not to knock the other Wu generals, but the man has just never turned in the phoned-in verses that have plagued other rappers' careers.  I've always loved Wu's 1-2 combos of sharp couplets and GZA fires one off in his first verse, describing his subway commutes with RZA to hip-hop parties and clubs:  "Myself and RZA made trips to the BX / A mass of ferocious emcees and talent t-rex."

Next, GZA offers "Did Ya Say That?" It's a sequel of sorts to Liquid Swords' "Labels," the classic track that name-dropped record labels and described GZA's distaste with record companies' policies.  According to the lyrical interpretation at Rap Genius, it starts with a reference to a record promoter who tried to sue Wu-Tang and GZA for getting trampled on at a show by fans, but his case was thrown out by a judge: "The herds start stomping the promoters that be frontin' / They sue for Cash Rules but the courts they give 'em nothing."

Ghostface and Wu-affiliate Streetlife have guest verses on "Silent," which is a decent track but is followed by the much stronger "Knock, Knock."  Now here's my biggest problem with Legend of the Liquid Sword - I triple-checked my copy of this CD when I bought it to make sure I had the explicit version.  I do, and I know because Ghostface Killah drops an F-bomb in "Silent" and I'd also heard "shit" and the n-word several times up to this point.  So why then, why, why, WHY is the hook for "Knock, Knock" (and "Fam (Members Only)" which I'll get to later) censored?  I don't believe in "bad language."  I believe there are words that can offend other people, but if an artist wrote a "curse word" into a song, I want to hear it.  It's their intended representation of the song, right?  So apparently GZA intended to edit the hook here, leading to the awkwardly-silenced bits we used to hear when MTV played music videos.  "Knock knock, who the ... is bangin' at my door?  Is it abstract, commercial or hardcore?  Better know who the ... they lookin' for."  I want to hear "who the fuck is bangin' at my door?"  It's a hook that expresses the ballsy confidence I expect from one of the world's best emcees, so it's a shame it's cut out where it punches.

The best answer is the opening pair of lines:  "I'm the obscene slang kicker with no parental sticker / Advisin' y'all that wise words is much slicker."  Ok, I agree that sometimes we resort to "parental advisory" type words (aka cursing) because we don't know what else to say, but if that's the case Genius is making, why not ask Ghost not to say "fuck" in "Silent?"  And the album actually DOES have the parental advisory sticker in the top right, so...?  Not calling GZA a hypocrite by any means, just not feeling the arbitrary censorship.  Had he left the "fucks" in this track, it would be making the case that language is free and using profanity isn't the same as falling short of a good vocabulary.

Ok, beef aside, "Knock Knock" is still tight.  A great double entendre in the second verse reads, "I gift-wrap the sawed-off, the DJ pump it / March to the sounds of Armstrong's trumpet."  Concise lines like this encompass the place of hip-hop in culture, especially Wu-Tang.  GZA often tells us he wants his lyrics to enlighten and spread wisdom, so he uses the metaphor of his lyrics having the impact of a shotgun with music the DJ "pumps," but also embodying the spirit of classic Black-American culture by referencing Louis Armstrong as a fellow force of culture.

Unlike my thoughts on "Chrome Wheels," a great sung hook (by Santi White) sews together "Stay in Line," followed by some of the most "classic Wu" music on the album on "Animal Planet" - slow-paced, old-school soul sampled from Isaac Hayes.  Mathematics pokes his head up to produce "Fam (Members Only)," which would likely be my favorite track on the album but it's once again censored.  The odd thing is, n-words and "shit" are edited out here, though they weren't on "Silent."  RZA's and Masta Killa's appearances are great - RZA rhymes biological with "True-I-Master-Equality / God body be flowin' like chi energy inside your artery" and Masta Killa brings lyrics like "Prepare for the mic onslaught swift with the sword / Slick lord, holding my weight, homing abroad."  But here, not only are the curse words taken out, they're actually replaced with sound effects like in the classic Wu videos from Enter the Wu-Tang.  I had hoped the version of the same song on the Masta Killa mix The Next Chamber would be uncensored, but it appears to be lifted straight from this album (though it cuts out RZA's first verse).

Sporadically, there is plenty to love across the second half of the record.  On some tracks, though, it's minimal - a hook here, a beat there.  Having said that, if you don't raise the bar to the original Liquid Swords standard, it's more than listenable.  GZA continues to provide strong lyrics, some shining brighter than others; and the music has its ups and downs.  Here's a quick rundown of the next few tracks.

I could do without Anthony Allen's "Shaft"-like hook on the title track, but the music is the real standout here.  Descending staccato keyboard chords over full drums and the occasional orchestral fill help counteract things like the cartoonish "Gee...Zee...Ayyyyyy" moaned in the background.  "Fame" follows the tradition of wordplay based on specific groups of the entertainment industry.  On "Labels" it was name-dropping record labels; "Publicity" on Beneath the Surface listed magazines and here we get celebrities.  "Tom Cruised the boulevard, Chris Rocked the song..."  "Highway Robbery" features some great Jamaican-style hooks by Governor Two's but distracts with - yet again - censored lyrics.  "Mix that shhh, y'all niggas can't do shhh..."  Perhaps the most foreshadowing track on the album is DJ Muggs producing "Luminal," which likely led into their collaboration DJ Muggs and GZA: Grandmasters (review to come).  Lyrically its closest thematic cousin is "Cereal Killer" on Method and Red's Blackout!, detailing a murderer and his methodology.

"Sparring Minds" is like a sudden wake-up call with fantastic music by Arabian "Q-Base" Knight and a guest spot by Inspectah Deck.  Both emcees rock great rhymes on this track, too.  Inspectah Deck rhymes "Find out what I'm about, know the legend / The slight disrespect of his name provoke tension / Known threat, bringing the force like Boba Fett / The old vet whose presence alone control the set."  GZA closes with "I thought of this tune / On a blackout guided by the light of the moon / On a campout, the kerosene lamp out / To rewalk the road that we paved / With trails that left vinyl footsteps engraved."  Sadly, the album closes with two uninspiring tracks:  the only RZA-produced song on the album, "Rough Cut," only features GZA on the hook between verses by 12 O'Clock, Prodigal Sunn and Armel; whereas "What You Know About?" is GZA on vocals and production but doesn't hold a candle to the earlier tracks.

Legacy:  Legend of the Liquid Sword fares better than Beneath the Surface - but fails to live up to its namesake.  The grimy sounds and kung-fu samples from Liquid Swords are mostly absent here, and while The Genius proves his might as a lyricist once again, GZA's problem with finding producers to live up to his lyrics lives on throughout the record with a couple happy exceptions.  Released a full year after the alienating Iron Flag, GZA's Legend of the Liquid Sword was followed by the European-only The World According to RZA, meaning that the June 2003 release of Inspectah Deck's stellar sophomore album The Movement is the brightest spot on The Map since probably The W almost three years before it.

Recommended Tracks:  Fam (Members Only), Sparring Minds.

Step Twenty Two: Wu-Tang Clan: Iron Flag.

Artist:  Wu-Tang Clan
Album:  Iron Flag
Release Date:  December 18, 2001
Producers:  RZA (except Mathematics' "Rules," Nick "Fury" Loftin's "One of these Days," True Master's "Y'all Been Warned" and Poke and Tone on "Back in the Game").

Review:  Wu-Tang is one of the best hip-hop groups of all time, so I honestly hate it whenever I have to make any complaints about one of their albums.  Hopefully by this point - the 22nd step on the path across the Map of Shaolin - I've proven that I give credit where it's due and I throw my W's up with the best of them.  However, up to this point (December 2001 on my map), Iron Flag is the weakest group album the Wu had put out.  It still has some real bangers, but there are too many problems to simply ignore.  However, it's such a unique contrast to their previous outings that it deserves to be dissected track by track.

Before even getting to the music, the packaging speaks volumes about the album's troubles.  The album cover might be their best (aside from the special edition 8 Diagrams, released six years later), imitating the famous picture of the U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima in 1945.  However, once again Ol' Dirty Bastard is missing.  RZA dons a beanie or skullcap bearing his initials, but ODB's appearances on Wu-Tang albums finally decreased all the way to zero - on The W he only appeared on "Conditioner" and on Wu-Tang Forever on just over a quarter of the tracks.  Cappadonna is also missing, but in a different sense of the word.  He posed for the photo between Raekwon and RZA (see that big gap between them?) and was airbrushed out after having a falling out with the group.  Fans never fully accepted him as much as the original nine Wu-Tang members, which upset him, and it was also revealed that his manager Lord Michael (birth name Michael Caruso) was a police informant.  After that trouble, he only ended up on one Iron Flag track and was taken off the cover.  RZA also only produces two-thirds of the tracks here.  I'm not a RZA purist with production duties but for their group albums it's surprising that he'd dip below the 75% mark he hit on Wu-Tang Forever - which, to be fair, was his seventh straight album and to which he contributed 21 of the 28 tracks at the controls.

So before hearing a single track, any listener on his/her way home from the record store has the first impression that Iron Flag is - compared to previous albums - missing ODB, Cappadonna and a higher rate of RZA-produced songs.  What's worse is Loud Music's liner notes advertisement, promising a "new album" from Raekwon in early 2002 - which became The Lex Diamond Story, dropping in late 2003.  Other albums have done the same - promising Method Man's Crystal Meth and GZA's Liquid Swords 2, both of which have yet to be released - but it sticks out more here due to Iron Flag's unstable staff (no pun intended).

Fortunately it starts off with a bang, between "In the Hood" and "Rules."  The former is highlighted with a fiery verse by Inspectah Deck and a chorus by Suga Bang Bang (who formerly appeared on the Ghost Dog soundtrack) over lively horns, uptempo drums and sound clips of sirens and gunshots.  Ghostface kicks off "Rules" with a verse about 9/11 and is followed by Masta Killa and Streetlife, who both offer tight verses.  The music is hype without being as frantic as "In the Hood," which is perfect for Method Man's last verse.  It reminds me of the more recent Wu-Tang sound - cleaner and less chunky than their classic albums but not without the chopped '70s horns we know and love.

Then there's "Chrome Wheels."  A sung hook about smoking pot and "bangin' that shit retarded" leads off before RZA raps a verse as his alter-ego Bobby Digital (which is likely why the production sounds so similar to Bobby Digital in Stereo on this track).  12 O'Clock and Prodigal Sunn appear, and they're fine but why are we hearing them before a word from GZA or U-God?  Flava Flav appears on "Soul Power (Black Jungle)" which some have criticized as a stand-in for ODB's usual wackiness.  It also features the power duo of Ghost and Rae, but Masta Killa and U-God shine brightest with sharp couplets illuminating their verses.  Masta Killa rhymes "I need a beat to expand, the mind guide the hand" and "Pen stroke excellent quotes of literature / Nights over Egypt, black as Arabia"; U-God recalls decades-past black pop culture with "Line Cadillacs to blocks, Richard Pryor Redd Foxx / Jukebox records, flatfooted cops" and "Dr. J before Jordan, Al Green on the organ / When Rerun did the dance, the whole world saw him."  Their two verses aside, "Chrome Wheels" and "Soul Power" pulled me out of the experience for nine minutes before bouncing back.

"Uzi (Pinky Ring)" calls back to The W's style with the blaxploitation funk horns and thicker sound.  It's got a hell of a loop with verses by all eight present Wu members, in the same strategy as "Protect Ya Neck," "Triumph" and "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)" before it - including GZA's first appearance on Iron Flag, over 1/4 through the album.  It's followed by "One of these Days," most notable for Raekwon's classic-style gangster/kung-fu lyrics: "Take these niggas and throw 'em in lakes, it's business / Rake these niggas on the mic, display your ninjas."

Then there's another quick rut.  "Y'all Been Warned" has a great post-Forever beat by True Master but no real standout verses by the otherwise spectacular emcees featured (INS, RZA, Rae and Meth); "Babies" aims for an endearing and dramatic chorus by Madame D (who also sung the hook for "Chrome Wheels") but somehow misses the mark.  A phenomenal RZA beat holds it together, and the real-life stories by Ghostface and Raekwon sound genuine and sorrowful, but when put together it doesn't hit the high-water marks of other tracks here or a year prior (on The W).  Essentially, Madame D's choruses - and she's a great singer, no doubt - don't hit me as hard as Tekitha on "Impossible" or Blue Raspberry on "Rainy Dayz."

But then GZA brings it back with his best verse yet on "Radioactive (Four Assassins)."  He opens with Liquid Swords-quality lyrics:

"Slept on this hazardous enterprise
Hit from the back from a long-range attack in disguise
Weeks of captivity became months
Those who were holdin' it down they hold a pump
Do we delay the conflict and prolong the suffer?
Got a mass of starvin' niggas wanna eat supper
Unfair corruptions lead to abductions
Creatin' wider circles of destructions."

Trackmasters bring a compelling beat and killer guest spot by the legendary Ron Isley to "Back in the Game," but there's little else on which to hang your hat.  The title track "Iron Flag" has awesome music, mixing old and new Wu sounds; and very solid verses by Raekwon, Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck - it may be Rae and MK's best verses so far.  Then it crossfades into a hidden track, "The Glock," which effectively undoes all the good "Iron Flag" did.  At the end of every bar in the song is a slowed-down loop of the line "Good thing we brought the Glock!" that alternates with every line or two.  Its closest cousin is "Careful (Click, Click)" on The W, but most of the dangerous antihero feelings from "Careful" are gone here, making way for a painful hook: "Never leave home without it / Good thing we brought the Glock! / Y'all niggas ain't 'bout it 'bout it / Good thing we brought the Glock!"  It's effectively the least impressed I've been with a Wu song.  Where are the amazing spiritual, philosophical and pop culture references?  They all got traded in for lines like "20 drunk crabs try to push the back door / Good thing we brought the Glock / Five box cutters drawn, they was ready for war / Good thing we brought the Glock."

Inspectah Deck and GZA close with decent verses and a ridiculously cool hook on "Dashing (Reasons)," but by the time the disc stops spinning, the album is as close to wearing out its welcome as Wu-Tang has been so far.  It leaves its audience with an anticlimax, and they'd have to wait six full years before the Wu returned with 2007's 8 Diagrams.

As far as emcee presence goes, the Clan is tallied up as follows, with big ups to Raekwon for providing ten verses on his own throughout 12 tracks.

RZA:  Production on eight songs, five verses.
Raekwon:  10 verses and a shared verse with Masta Killa.
Inspectah Deck:  Eight verses.
Masta Killa:  Seven verses and a shared verse with Raekwon.
Ghostface Killah:  Six verses.
Method Man:  Five verses, two hooks.
GZA:  Five verses.
U-God:  Four verses, two hooks.
Cappadonna:  One bridge ("The Glock").
ODB:  MIA.

Legacy:  Iron Flag saw Wu-Tang standing on shaky legs, coming in just a year after The W and completely lacking Ol' Dirty - a sore disappointment for those hoping for his comeback after only appearing on one song on The W.  Cappadonna is also virtually absent, and although he's not my favorite Wu emcee he'd earned a place on Ironman, Wu-Tang Forever and The W so it's odd not hearing him here.  RZA also only produces two-thirds of the album, which is strange because considering his near-impeccable track record, three of my four least favorite songs on Iron Flag had him in the producer's booth.  Not knocking RZA - he's one of the world's best music producers - but a couple of his tracks here weren't for me.  Despite those handicaps, Iron Flag holds its own as best it can for 55 minutes and brings some real winners to the mix.

From the standpoint of the band regrouping between solo records, Iron Flag is also a damn memorable place.  Between it and 8 Diagrams would come Masta Killa's debut solo album, Method Man's widely-panned Tical 0: The Prequel, a whopping four releases by Ghostface Killah, the departure and return of U-God to/from the Wu and the biggest tragedy the group has faced: the death of Ol' Dirty Bastard at the age of 35, marking The W as the last group album on which he appeared before his passing.

Recommended Tracks:  Uzi (Pinky Ring), Radioactive (Four Assassins).

Step Twenty One: Ghostface Killah: Bulletproof Wallets.

Artist:  Ghostface Killah
Album:  Bulletproof Wallets
Release Date:  November 13, 2001
Producers:  RZA ("Maxine," "Flowers," "Walking through the Darkness," "Jealousy"), The Alchemist (as Al Chemist) ("The Forest," "The Juks," "Street Chemistry"), Mathematics ("Theodore," "Strawberry"), et al.

Review:  Ghostface's third album is Bulletproof Wallets.  There's so much to say about it I'm going to skip the preamble and get down to business.

For starters, the personnel is very intriguing.  This is the first album to feature Ghostface's spin-off group The Theodore Unit (which includes Ghostface, Trife, Twiz, Shawn Wigs, Solomon Childs and Cappadonna).  The Theodore Unit is similar to Raekwon's American Cream Team, being led by one Wu general and featuring several hand-picked talents - Twiz was even in both groups.  On Bulletproof Wallets, Trife and Twiz appear, though more members of the group followed on subsequent Ghost records - keep them in mind, as Ghost's 2006 release More Fish includes them on the majority of tracks.  Producer mainstays RZA and Mathematics provide close to half the album together, and this is also the first appearance in the Wu catalog of The Alchemist (here credited as Al Chemist), who would go on to produce tracks on Raekwon's Cuban Linx 2 and Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang as well as become Eminem's official DJ five years later.  Speaking of Raekwon, The Chef appears on four tracks ("Maxine," "Flowers," "Never Be the Same Again" and "The Hilton").  Other Wu appearances include Method Man, an interlude/hook by RZA and GZA ("Strawberry") and Wu affiliates Killa Sin, Prodigal Sunn and Tekitha.

Avid fans may recognize the track name "Walking through the Darkness" from RZA's Ghost Dog soundtrack.  On that release, it was performed solo by Tekitha, singing wonderfully over Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" instrumental.  Here, Ghost has two verses, differentiating it from the original.  This is also one of the most prominent early example of Ghost performing amid sung R&B hooks (on his own records that is), on tracks like "Never Be the Same Again" and "Ghost Showers."  This style came to fruition most prominently on Ghost's 2009 album Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City, which features R&B vocals on almost every track.

So how does the album fare?  RZA kicks it off right with phat beats on "Maxine" and "Flowers" and live verses by Ghost, Rae, Method Man and Superb.  I was never an R&B fan but I appreciate Carl Thomas's hook on "Never Be the Same Again," The sped-up sample of Blood Sweat & Tears' "40,000 Headsmen" intro on "Theodore" is fantastic, making for a unique music box-led beat by Mathematics that features the best lyrics so far on the record.  Ghost runs out of the gate with

"Stark edition rock Christians
The crystallized rock got the big jewelry dealers on a mission
With a slick taste of lace, I done smacked New York City
The 450 went poppin' when he tried to dip me
Balled out in bingo halls, reported skied out in jury duty
Judge Judy, big groupie bitch blew me, beigin' rush Kufi
Blast the last uzi, ship me to Africa right?  I share rubies."

Meanwhile, Trife makes a case for himself on the same song: "Whatever y'all put up I double that / Stapleton is where I hustle at, 2-12 is where I bubble at / Yeah I'm talkin' moneywise, you funny guys / I'm quick to yolk you up like an egg cooked sunny-side."

Mathematics kills it again on "Strawberry," which also showcases the only thing about Ghost I'm not crazy about: he's got so many explicit verses about sex that they tend to stand out even among his most brilliant albums.  I'm no stranger to sex in lyrics, stories and movies, but between the squishing sound effects and rhymes about ejaculation, sometimes it seems like too much.

Fortunately the second half of the album stays mostly solid throughout.  Ghost's lyrics fare better on the surreal "The Forest" than "Strawberry."  It's themed around cartoon characters in adult situations and based on a lovely sample by The Imaginations.  "The Juks" is an engaging track about gambling that never wears out its welcome.  As mentioned earlier, "Walking through the Darkness" is a winner, just like the following proper track "The Hilton" - although the latter is thrown off pace a bit since it's bookended by two 60-second musical interludes.  "Interlude" itself gets your blood pumping just as it cuts out, although it does a good job of foreshadowing the equal parts modern and retro sound that continued on Fishscale.  The R&B-centered "Love Session" feels a bit long before the closer "Street Chemistry," but on the whole it's a satisfying album.

Legacy:  At just 46 minutes, with five of its 16 tracks clocking in under two minutes each, Bulletproof Wallets is a concise and listenable album that mixes Ghost's classic sound (which evokes RZA's most syrupy funk beats) with his first project as a group leader (of the Theodore Unit). Due to sample clearance issues, several tracks failed to appear on the album, which is likely the chief cause for Wallets' brevity.  This is also Ghost's last album for Epic, signing next to Def Jam, and rumors (and Wikipedia) have it that Ghost's reasoning for leaving Epic is tied to their failure to assist him in obtaining rights to the samples he used on the missing tracks.  Besides being a bit less airtight than Supreme Clientele and Ironman, Bulletproof Wallets is proof that Ghost can make a hat trick for great albums, rendering him as reliable a talent as Inspectah Deck or Raekwon's more recent career.

Recommended Tracks:  Maxine, Theodore, The Forest.

Step Twenty: RZA: Digital Bullet.

Artist:  RZA
Album:  Digital Bullet
Release Date:  August 18, 2001
Producer:  RZA (except "Domestic Violence Pt. 2" prod. by Tony Touch, "La Rhumba" prod. by True Master).

Review:  Bobby Digital in Stereo received mixed reviews when it was released in November of 1998, but RZA bounced back immediately on lyrics and production on the Ghost Dog soundtrack and Wu-Tang's The W.  So when Digital Bullet surfaced in 2001 as another "RZA as Bobby Digital" album, it's easy to understand either way whether a fan would be on-board or hesitant to embrace it.  Would it be tighter than Bobby Digital in Stereo?  Could it measure up to the high bars set by Ghost Dog and The W?  As it turns out, it lands somewhere in between.  For its typical Bobby Digital lyrical problems, it still fares better than Bobby Digital in Stereo with far better beats and solid guest spots.

Digital Bullet opens with "Show U Love," whose only real problem is the number of times its hook repeats.  "We come to show you love, son, we come to show you / Whether you my nigga, my bitch or I don't know you."  Luckily the verse lyrics make up for it.  "A room full of eyes, naked demons in disguise / As naked women, walkin' sour lemon airy head / High-pitch bird fly canary bodies vary / Wisdom is secondary, at most necessary."  RZA brings the heat with guests Method Man, Masta Killa and Streetlife on "Glocko Pop," which may be the best realization and balance of Bobby Digital's id-driven egoism and key/synth-based beats and Wu-Tang's trademark rhyme skills and lyrical swordsmanship.  It's like his alter-ego brought his own take on Wu's Ghost Dog track "Fast Shadow."  Method Man sets his verse off lovely with "Yo who wanna play the hero?  Your chances are slim / Less than zero, Shaolin laboratory friend."  Masta Killa follows suit:  "The marvelous bone-crushin' assassin / Appears to be blind in glasses / Daredevil bang head with shovel / Iron skin, Tony Starks, liquid metal."  MK's verse on "Brooklyn Babies" doesn't flow as mercurial as he does here.

"Must Be Bobby" and "Brooklyn Babies" have great music and adequate vocals.  Surprising no one, GZA slays on "Do U" with lyrics like "You know those jams in the park produced the spark / Made me feel words how I read books in the dark" and "I walked through the borough challenging the best that stood / Torch metal mics, they conduct better than wood."

At the halfway mark on the album, True Master's South American-steeped "La Rhumba" may have the most infectious beat on the album, evoking the pleasure-seeking Bobby Digital to some fun lyrics.  "On the dance floor, yo, the way you glide / Make a club of thugs do the Electric Slide."  Method Man provides a quick verse, but like Masta Killa, he did better on "Glocko Pop."  As is the usual problem with this album, "Shady" has a great beat but the lyrics don't match up, telling the story of Bobby Digital ditching a girl after finding out that she's bisexual - wait, what?

"Bong Bong" and "Throw your Flag Up" have killer beats as well - the former utilizing what sounds like a shamisen or seung.

It's right on "Throw Your Flag Up" that the album decides to finish damn strong for its final five tracks.  It offers an Ironman-esque slow soul tune with brass and grimy drums on a loop.  RZA also returns to a classic lyrical style here, referencing Rollie Fingers (Inspectah Deck's Cuban Linx nickname) and ending with "Up in the 36 cell block I shadowbox / ship on weed grass and build up like a male ox."

"Be A Man" brings back more funk sax and RZA's best lines so far.  For example...

"Peoples' eyes closed like envelopes by faux penmanship
With unpaid doctor bills, framed, got shot and killed
Cops poppin' pills, three pair cotton, steel closet, cabinet of no frills
More bills, sister got evicted from Park Hill"

and

"$50 ticket, about to strike and picket
And shout at the city hall 'Motherfuck the wicked
And greedy,' give to the needy
Down on my luck, about to grab a ouija
Board, that's when Bobby Digi seen me
Said 'Yo son, don't stress over no one
Learn the slogan:
Knowledge is half the battle, that's one to grow on
And don't be counterfeit
It's a bad situation being a man, but we got to handle it.'"

Junior Reid, who brought his ragga vocals on "One Blood Under W" and "Jah World" on The W, returns for "Righteous Way" and sings truly beautiful lyrics for the first half ot the track before RZA's verse.  Tekitha backs RZA on "Build Strong," which seems to be the part of the story in which RZA wrestles his Bobby Digital alter-ego and wins, closing with "Sickness," which is much more in tune with RZA's Wu slang and street lamentations.

Overall it's a jarring album at the first couple listens:  It starts and finishes strong, with a couple less stellar tracks before its halfway point and a few after.  RZA slips in and out of Bobby Digital's mentality on the lyrics and the beats.  Sometimes it seems like he wants to live both identities at once and in a couple places he seems to let the reins go entirely (eg "Black Widow Pt. 2").  Anyone who heard Bobby Digital in Stereo and is willing to grant Digital Bullet as much patience will be greatly rewarded, as it's ultimately the better of the two albums - if not quite as strong as when RZA just plays The RZA.

Legacy:  Digital Bullet is about the last the world saw of RZA's comic book alter ego, with rumors and test footage of a Bobby Digital movie popping up here and there over the last decade.  If "Build Strong" is any indication, RZA managed to put Bobby to sleep.  It was received more favorably than its predecessor and holds an odd place in RZA's production career, between the excellent Wu-Tang release The W and their following album, Iron Flag, which earned the ire of much of the public.  It's also one of the earliest points of reference for the tightly-spun latter-day RZA sound that permeated the Afro Samurai soundtracks.  If this is Bobby Digital's last appearance, RZA sent him off with a bang.

Recommended Tracks:  Glocko Pop, La Rhumba, Be A Man, Righteous Way.

Step Nineteen: Wu-Tang Clan: The W.

Artist:  Wu-Tang Clan
Album:  The W
Release Date:  November 21, 2000
Producer:  RZA (except "Do You Really (Thang Thang)" and "Clap" prod. by Mathematics)

Review:  For anyone who found 1997's Wu-Tang Forever too lengthy or bloated, their third full-length release, The W, tightens things up considerably.  It clocks in at under an hour, bonus track included.  It also features guest spots from some legendary artists, not the least of whom are Isaac Hayes and Nas.

With or without the cover art, I find that this is Wu-Tang's darkest - and maybe even most "gangsta rap" - sounding album.  "Careful (Click, Click)" has a grimey beat and echoing wood block, group shout-outs saying "Fuck the police," and a hook that repeatedly references gunfire and box cutters (implying that they're used for violence). "Something in the street went BANG BANG / Making it hard for you to do ya thang thang," says Capadonna, followed by Ghostface's "Something in the hall went click click / The box cutter went click click."  The unsettling "Let My Niggas Live," (featuring a verse by Nas that smartly references Marcus Garvey) has a Raekwon hook which mentions "making major moves," "getting caught in the caper" and advising others to "handle your bid and kill no kids."  It's followed immediately by the Ghostface/RZA track "I Can't Go to Sleep" (with vocals by Isaac Hayes) that centers around children and civil rights leaders being murdered.

The other interesting thing about this record is the addition of several separate beats/verses after a song seems to end.  "Conditioner," the only track which features Ol' Dirty Bastard or Snoop Dogg, stops around the four-minute mark and starts a new beat with a freestyle by GZA and a hook by Inspectah Deck.  "I Can't Go to Sleep" starts about 30 seconds before the end of "Let My Niggas Live" - the track changes over with the proper start of Ghostface's verse.  "Do You Really (Thang Thang)" also winds down around four minutes and picks up with a new beat, a hook and the first couple lines of a verse before Raekwon says to turn it down and the following track starts.  Even "Clap," the secret song at the end, is only separated by the closing track "Jah World" by a couple seconds.

It should come as no surprise that this album sounds great from start to finish.  "Chamber Music" starts off with some fast ride cymbals and simple piano notes - and a blistering opening verse by Raekwon.  Slicker than snot he spits out "Peep the jump-off, ain't nothin' sweet, got dumped off / Frontin' like you won't get deaded and bumped off / Drastic son, master guns that'll run up in plastic ones / And then go crash in the slums."  Despite his recent Immobilarity being his least impressive release to date, The Chef is back and proves it all over this album - even as the first to be heard on it.  It's a good idea on RZA's part to feature every member of Wu-Tang Clan, including Cappadonna but excluding Ol' Dirty Bastard, on the first two tracks.  Unlike Forever, The W guarantees most listeners will hear their favorite emcee inside the first nine minutes of the album.  Raekwon, GZA, Method Man and Masta Killa take "Chamber Music" and RZA, Cappadonna, U-God, Ghostface and Inspectah Deck feature on "Careful (Click, Click)."

"Hollow Bones" continues the sound I described recently that became a real trend with the Wu.  It takes their old soul-inspired sound and tunes up an instrument or two - in this case, the hook.  Speaking of good ideas, "Redbull" features Redman and, likely due to the platinum success of Method and Red's Blackout!, he's followed immediately by Method Man.

Junior Reid provides lovely rasta vocals on "One Blood Under W," which is also Masta Killa's first solo track on a group album.  That may sound like a narrow focus (he already had solo tracks on the Ghost Dog soundtrack and the Shaolin Style soundtrack), but to me it's an important track on the album.  Here's why.  Method Man had the only solo track on Enter the Wu-Tang, which featured just one Masta Killa verse in its entirety.  On Forever, ODB, RZA, Inspectah Deck and U-God all had their own solo tracks.  In the seven years between Enter the Wu-Tang and The W, Masta Killa came into his own on close to a dozen tracks and is here featured with his own song.  Despite at this point being the only Wu-Tang general without a solo album released, this is the biggest sign that he's grown as an artist to the point of getting the spotlight on a track like the others before him.  I also think he's fascinating, since so little is known about him; and very underrated, since Method Man, Ghost and RZA seem to be the most popular surviving members of the group; so I keep a close eye on Masta Killa's work.  And his second verse really slays.  "Don't ask this is genuine draft / Blueprint ultimate legit sting international, stone love classical / Coming back to attack in black fatigue / Wu-Tang and Junior Reid."

ODB makes his only appearance of the album (due to a stint in prison) on "Conditioner" with a weird verse about vaginas, bedwetting and farts; he also provides the awkward chorus "MC conditioner, you could never say this boy's a amateur" which repeats a dozen times.  It's the most off-beat hook since the beginning, when Method Man says "Chamber music, fuckin' the party uppin'" on "Chamber Music."

The lead single "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump-Off)" features every Wu general (minus ODB) plus Cappadonna.  There are fantastic lyrics throughout, from Inspectah Deck's intro ("Dance with the mantis, note the slim chances / Chant this anthem, swing like Pete Sampras") to GZA's closer ("Run on the track like Jesse Owens / Broke the record flowin' without any knowin' that my word play run the 400-meter relay / It's on once I grab the baton from the DJ").  The beat is uptempo and really keeps the Wu on their toes:  Method Man brings some killer similes ("Bust shots at Big Ben like we got time to kill") and RZA's quick verse finishes each line with a shout-out to his alter ego Bobby Digital ("Y'all might just catch me in the park playin' chess, studyin' math, signing 'seven' and a sun" "BOBBY!").

"I Can't Go to Sleep" and "Do You Really (Thang Thang)" both have incredible music in their own rights - the first is a slow, orchestrated '70s-style soul melody and the latter is an upbeat hip-hop beat with urgent keyboards and popping drums.  "Gravel Pit" displays the most common complaint about RZA's music in the last 15 years - an ill-fitting, sung chorus peppered throughout the song.  Wu-Tang just released their brand-new single "Ron O'Neal," 14 years later, and it's still the same problem: admirable idea, but just doesn't fit.

As always, let's take a look at presence on the album.  In light of the recently-resolved Raekwon/RZA dispute and the personnel on the upcoming album A Better Tomorrow (with RZA ranking which Wu members have brought the most verses or the least), it's worth seeing who carries each album the most.

Ghostface Killah dominates with seven verses, a couple hooks and backing vocals.
Method Man does six verses and a hook as well.
Masta Killa has six verses.
Raekwon spits five verses, two hooks and extra vocals.
Inspectah Deck rhymes five verses and a hook.
RZA brings four verses and an intro and produces 12 of the album's 14 tracks.
GZA has three verses and a freestyle.
U-God offers three verses, a hook and extra vocals.
Cappadonna, the quasi-official 10th Wu-general, has two verses.
Ol' Dirty Bastard performs one verse and a hook.

Legacy:  The W was highly rated by most critics.  The music sees RZA and Mathematics taking plenty of risks that mostly pay off, the lyrics are a return to form for everyone (including members like Raekwon whose previous solo outings weren't as well-received) and it gels as a record overall.  It features great guest spots too.  It's a great example of how prolific Ghostface Killah can be: he has seven verses on this album, released his sophomore album Supreme Clientele earlier that year and put out his third solo album (Bulletproof Wallets) less than a year later.  On the other hand, ODB's absence here is just one sign of the legal troubles that would plague him the rest of his life.  The other minor hiccups are that it's often remembered for its Flintstones-esque video for "Gravel Pit," which is clearly a misstep; and there is the aforementioned sung hook that doesn't fill the shoes of choruses like "Can it Be All So Simple."  However, The W is still a great listen, from the winning music on "Do You Really (Thang Thang)" to the tight lyrics throughout (especially Raekwon on "Chamber Music," Masta Killa on "One Blood Under W" and the whole clan on "Protect Ya Neck (The Jump-Off)").

Recommended Tracks:  One Blood Under W, Protect Ya Neck (The Jump-Off), Do You Really (Thang Thang).

Next Week:  Can RZA improve on Bobby Digital in Stereo with his second Bobby solo album Digital Bullet?  Come back next Wu Wednesday and find out!